Google Page Rank Explained

There is much discussion surrounding Google PageRank, what it means, and how to improve it. With the advent of the Google toolbar, anyone willing to perform a short, free software installation can easily view the PageRank of any page on the Internet. But what does this all mean?

First off, in this article the term "PageRank" refers to the displayed toolbar PageRank, not Google's internal page rank, which is a whole other beast entirely.

PageRank, in a nutshell, is determined by an algorithm loosely explained as follows: the more sites which link to any given site (site A), the higher the PageRank of site A. This does come with a couple of caveats, however:

1) The PageRank of the sites which link to site A determines the importance of their link - in other words, sites with higher PageRanks cast votes with more weight than sites with lower PageRanks.

2) Regardless of the PageRank of the external site linking to site A, a one-way, inbound link will carry more weight than a reciprocal link.

3) PageRank is only one of over 100 factors used to determine a site's organic search ranking - so, while a high PageRank is desirable, it is not the determining factor in achieving top rankings.

The first caveat above is relatively straightforward: if you look at a link to a site as a "vote" for that site, greater credence is given to sites which Google considers more important (higher PageRank). So, even though they are harder to obtain, it is best to seek links from sites with a relatively high PageRank.

The second caveat may seem surprising – reciprocal linking via link exchange schemes does little, if anything, anymore, in determining PageRank. A link was considered a “vote” by Google at one time, but it soon realized that reciprocal linking (two sites linking to one another), could merely be an agreement between two websites to help each other artificially increase their PageRank. The omnipresence of link exchange schemes affirms that fact.

Reciprocal linking is wrought with perils – if you link to a site that engages in known search engine spamming techniques (such as link farming), or has other problems, you will be penalized for linking to a "bad neighborhood"

Google deals with harshly with sites that try to manipulate its ranking algorithms, or violate its Terms of Inclusion, or even sites that link to these sites. I’ve known many well-intentioned individuals who were prey to their own innocence. It is important to remember that, 10 times out of 10, you are not smarter than Google. Any you do to try to artificially increase your ranking will likely get you penalized - because they know all of the tricks in the book, and even some that aren't in the book.

Inbound links from trusted, relevant sources ensure that are not at risk of linking to a bad neighborhood, and your links are not discounted due to reciprocity. But, how can we obtain one way, inbound links? Well, the answer, in the abstract, is fairly simple – give people content that they will want to link from.

Rich, quality, unique content makes search engines very happy, and also generates interest in your site, which in turn generates the ever so valuable one way, inbound links. The most ethical, effective and quick way to obtain these quality inbound links is through the use of a weblog coupled with an outbound Atom XML or RSS site feed and content syndication/article distribution.

A weblog will help you add fresh content to your site regularly, say once a week, by spending thirty minutes or sowriting a brief article about what it is you know about - it can be your product, your industry, whatever. I recommend blogger.com, as it is owned by Google and Google crawls it regularly - it is the quickest way to get found in my opinion. Blogging lets you have update your site with fresh, rich, unique content at regular intervals. And it appears, that Google favors such sites and ranks them higher than static sites. Implementing an outbound XML or RSS feed, coupled with content syndication, means your content automatically appears on third party web sites who subscribe to your feed. Each time you update your site, their site is automatically updated as well with your new content. The most amazing thing about this technology is that, by default, when your content appears on a third party site (via XML feed), it automatically generates an anchor text link back to your site, for which you do not reciprocate. As the content provider – you get the one way, inbound link, and the third party site gets to use your content! You can quickly add many inbound links by using this technology. A trained search engine optimization professional, will perform the necessary installations, carry out site optimization, and then train you on how to write your articles and syndicate your content.

 Additionally, article distribution and syndication sites, social bookmarking icons and links to your blog will add to your linking power.

Sounds confusing? It really isn’t. Many people say, "I am not a writer." But you are not after a Pulitzer here. You are writing about your business or industry, something you do certainly know a lot about. Remember, this is not a marketing or sales copy. Your article should attract a broad audience and be republished, bookmarked, or linked to across the web. This article is a prototype.

As to the third caveat above, by all means, do seek to improve your PageRank. However, perform any search on Google and take a look at the sites listed in the top ten or twenty results, and you will see that they are not ranked according to their PageRank. So, to insist on increased PageRank as the defining factor of a quality search engine optimization is missing the point. Search engine optimization should only be measured by increased traffic over time. PageRank is far from the "end all and be all" of SEO.